Words build trust, long after logos change

When a brand changes how it looks, people immediately see the shift. But when a brand changes how it sounds, that’s when people start to feel it.

We’ve worked with global brands for over 25 years. And if there’s one thing we’ve seen again and again: words build trust. They’re what people repeat, recommend, and remember. Long after the colour palette shifts or the logo gets a refresh.

Rewriting reshapes your relationship with customers

A new voice can wake up your teams, energise your marketing, and create the kind of consistency that leads to real, measurable change.

That’s what happened with Aviva. We helped them test and rewrite their tone across advertising, policy documents, and internal comms. Their original language was meant to feel reassuring. But only 1 in 4 customers found it did. So we co-developed new tones, ran real tests, and landed on a voice that felt credible and human. Writers enjoyed using it. Customers trusted it. And you could hear the difference everywhere.

Rewriting doesn’t just help you keep up, it steers growth

When Unilever looked to refresh Axe, they could have played it safe. But their audience had moved on. So did the brand.

Out went the teenage-boy humour. In came something sharper, more mature. We helped rename 50+ products and trained global teams to speak in a new voice. The results speak for themselves: a 26% lift in positive sentiment and a 4% uptick in purchase intent among US men.

Not every rewrite works. And not every one should.

When Twitter rebranded to X, it dropped one of the richest brand lexicons of the last 20 years. Tweets. Retweets. The bird. All gone overnight.

And when Standard Life Aberdeen rebranded as Abrdn, people struggled to say it, spell it, or search it. They gained headlines, but lost coherence.

These aren’t simply identity issues, they’re language issues. Because when a brand gives up the words people love without offering anything better, it breaks the bond.

Your language is your brand, not a layer on top

  • 64% of consumers say they trust brands that keep their message consistent (Salesforce)
  • Human, conversational tones lead to higher customer advocacy and likeability (NNG)
  • And 42% of consumers say they’d stop buying after a badly executed rebrand (HubSpot)

Your language shapes the relationship.

The payoff is real, measurable, and profitable

Successful rebrands can lift profits by up to 30% (Deloitte). But it’s not the logo doing the work. It’s the story. The voice. The feeling customers get from your words.

Aviva found a voice people could trust. Axe stayed bold, but got smarter. Both rewrote how they were seen and, in doing so, how they sold.

Brands that lead, rewrite

We’ve helped Fortune 500s and growing challengers do just that: lead with language to meet the moment. Whether that’s to attract new talent, shift perception, or bring consistency across 30 markets.

And if your brand is scaling, stretching, or repositioning in any way, the time to rewrite is now.

So. When was the last time you refreshed your language?